By Isaac Chew

Dear Singaporeans,

I am writing on behalf of the grief stricken friends and family of my dearest best friend, Sivaneswaran. He was killed on the 28th of May 02:50am in an apartment in Bangkok which he shared with his lover and 4 years old son.

Initial post mortem shows ‘Cerebral Anoxia’ (lack of oxygen to the brain), manual strangulation to his neck. He also received multiple blows on the left side of his head and nose, teeth marks were found on both hands.

A man’s life has been taken. Yet, the Bangkok authorities have actually released the two men involved in the incident. One of them, Siva’s lover’s ex-husband and a friend he brought along. To our understanding, the suspect was released from custody within several hours at the station after paying bail and have resumed work as normal. In addition, Siva’s lover has yet to testify/pursue or press any charges against her ex-husband who is her business partner in Thailand.

Siva, a former national U-18 Soccer player had made the move to Bangkok to pursue his passion – he has always dreamt to be a professional soccer player which he eventually did before moving on to work in his lover’s company where he worked hard and helped the company grew.

Siva being the passionate hard worker he was, slogged really hard for his lover’s company although wages were always not paid to him on time. On top of that, when his lover’s business was not doing well, Siva borrowed money from his dad on numerous occasions in order to sustain her business. He had a bright future ahead however his life is cut short unexpectedly.

The Crime

Reports from Thai authorities stated that Siva was found faced down in his own condo apartment (where security access is required to enter the building) with his assailant on top of him holding him in a chokehold position and his accomplice holding his legs. Siva’s lover, whom he had a kid with, had been living together for the past 5 years, claimed that she conveniently left the apartment before things took a tragic turn.

Statements to the Thai authorities that has been made has also been one sided at this point, which means only his lover’s, her ex husband’s and his friend’s statements have been taken. These were the 3 Europeans present at the time of his death. His son wasn’t present at that time. Thai Police arrived on scene at 02:15am and pronounced Sivaneswaran s/o Ramalingam dead at 02:50am.

Siva’s phone was only retrieved from his lover’s ex husband girlfriend only 15 hours after the time of his death. Messages from his phone with his lover have also mysteriously vanished. Certain videos and voice recordings were also missing in his phone after retrieval. Currently, his laptop is no where to be found. Only his charger and laptop bag was present at his apartment.

Hope for the investigation to be looked into thoroughly

Given these many discrepancies and eyebrow-raising factors, I hope the relevant authorities from both Singapore and Thailand will look into the matter thoroughly and not just label it as an accident. To my understanding, the Thai authorities are looking to close this matter asap, taking this case very lightly.

What makes it even more absurd and raises more suspicion is that this lover of his did not even bother to ask about the details of the wake and cremation, let alone turning up. I guess this itself speaks a lot on one’s guilt.

Therefore, I would like to extend this message to all Singaporeans to stand as one and seek justice for my dearest friend. All we want is for the truth to surface and seek closure and also ensure that all investigations are done fairly and professionally.

I earnestly appeal to and strongly urge everyone who reads this to please share this post in the hope that local authorities will begin to take a serious view on this matter. We need all the help you can give and support as this happened in a foreign country. Let us stand together and fight as one to find justice not only for Siva, but also his family and love ones.

It is puzzling how the assailants and suspects are still able to roam the streets freely with no repercussions after this incident. If this could happen to my best friend, this could happen to anybody. All we want is for the truth to surface, relevant actions to be taken to the guilty party and justice to be served for Siva and his family.

I also strongly urge local government authorities to support us in this matter after reading this as we really need all the support which we can have as this happened in a foreign country.

Thank you for taking time to read this saddening news and sharing it. We really appreciate all the support we can get during this tough time.

You will always be remembered Siva and rest assured that we will find the truth on the events that transpired that night.

We love you Siva.

Update:

Day 10 of my best friend’s passing. I would like to sincerely thank each and everyone of you who took the effort to be in contact with me and my brothers, sending us messages expressing your condolences and concern during our time in Bangkok and over the course of these 10 days.

8th day prayers have been done 2 days ago on the 5th of June 2016, Sunday. We touched down in Singapore a day before to prepare for the prayers the next day.

The purpose of our visit to Bangkok was to provide support to my best friend’s father. It was also to seek answers and the truth pertaining to my best friend’s death.

It was a challenging 3 days of running around, travelling from one entity to another; from the police station to the condominium to the Singapore embassy and meeting with the lawyers. We had very little rest and the language barrier we faced proved to be difficult as well. We hardly had anytime to grief over Siva’s death. But we believe that all this will be worth it.

What we gathered from our 3 days was that the outcome, and any hope of justice, lies in the hands of the Thai police. We really hope that the Singapore government and the relevant authorities can offer us support to facilitate this matter so that actions will be taken accordingly. The last thing that we want is for the case to be closed or taken lightly. We are in the midst of searching for a legal representative who specializes in criminal law and prosecution. Fighting this case means to and fro flights for Siva’s Father and family, loss of income due to job opportunity loss (as he is a freelance bus driver), lawyer fees and other costs involved.

In light of all this, we will also be initiating a fund raiser for the family on crowdfunding platform indiegogo due to their lack of finances to fight his case and achieve justice for their beloved son. We have put together a 4min video for the family and it is in the midst of editing now.

We need to stand together and keep Siva’s Fire burning. I hope through each update, the relevant authorities in Singapore can lend us their support – to support the family through this difficult time. We will stop at nothing till justice is served. I sincerely hope that all of you can help share this story and keep Siva’s Fire burning, at least until the truth has been brought to light.

I cannot express how hard it is to pen down my feelings at this point. My heart lies with Siva and his family. There are approximately 20,000 Singaporeans working in Bangkok and Siva is one of them. He is also the only Singaporean murdered abroad in Bangkok and I truly hope the Singapore authorities would lend us their support as a fellow Singaporean life is lost.

Thank you so much for taking time to read this. Please feel free to copy and paste this message on any of our MP’s wall. We really need all the help we can gather at this point in time.

We love you Siva.

This post was first published on Issac’s Facebook account

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